


Genesis 19:5

by mm8



Series: MMoM [44]
Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Celibacy, Character Study, Community: love_bingo, Episode Related, Episode: s01e03 Dispossessed, M/M, Masturbation, Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge, Religion, Religious Conflict, Religious Content, Religious Guilt, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-03
Updated: 2013-05-03
Packaged: 2017-12-10 06:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/782860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mm8/pseuds/mm8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His life in England was much more simple. Now that he is in this savage land, Athelstan isn't sure what to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Genesis 19:5

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by [alafaye](http://archiveofourown.org/users/alafaye).

_"It was foretold that divine Punishment would fall upon God's chosen people for all our grievous sins, and so it has happened. And that is why I am here."_  
_-Athelstan, Dispossessed, Vikings_

In England, in the monastery, there was no temptation. There was only God, day in and day out. He and his fellow monks ate, prayed, copied the Holy Scriptures, and slept all in His name. It was simple. 

The closest thing to any sort of sexual encounters that Athelstan had while in the monastery were simple kisses between him and Brother Cenwulf. Innocent pecks on the cheeks, brotherly kisses on each others tonsures. One time, while they were supposed to be studying in the library, they had dared to kissed each others lips. But afterwards, they had both wanted penance, asking for God's forgiveness. After that one true kiss, they resumed their routine of platonic gestures. He and Cenwulf were both forever thankful that the abbot had not found out about their treachery. 

Athelstan always knew he was different. Even in the scriptures, men did not lie with other men without reprimand as was written in the passage in the Book of Genesis of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet ever since he had been a young boy reaching manhood, Athelstan could always remember having dreams of lusting for the male flesh. He knew it was a man because the flesh was hard, muscular, and never soft like a woman's. There was the hardened organ of a man in his dreams. He never imagined the pert breasts of a woman's to suckle. Before joining the monastery, he'd touch his hot skin to rid himself of these thoughts until he was spent. 

After becoming a monk, he was taught the ways to reign in his desires. Athelstan felt as though he had become whole.

Now, in this strange land with these savages, nothing was right. 

They have God _s_ , plural, and their Gods were wicked and sour. Killing was an honor and material things like gold and silver were valued too highly. 

These were the _people_ who threw Brother Cenwulf's body over the ship and into the sea like he was nothing more than the discarded rotten food that they could no longer eat.

He had deserved much more than that. Anyone did. A proper burial in God's green earth. 

What most intrigued…disgusted Athelstan, however, was the relationship between husbands and their wives. The vows between husbands and wives here were not taken seriously. They laid with others, encouraged it even. It did not matter if a husband wanted to lie with another man and his wife at the same time, or if a man wanted to take another lover without his wife being involved. These people, these _Vikings_ , did not care about the gender of their partners whatsoever. 

Ragnar and his wife, Lagertha, were interested in lying with him in such a fashion. They tried to his first night in their household. Athelstan had stayed strong, and recited his prayers and they had quickly bored of their new toy, their priest.

Since then, he noticed that Ragnar's eyes had lingered. His master often gazed at him while he worked on the farm or read his book. Ragnar's eyes were dark and heated; they always look up and down Athelstan's body like he was trying to decide on something. 

The day Ragnar let him wash by himself at the river was a revelation. As he cleaned his hair, growing unruly since his capture, Athelstan noticed that there's a bit of fuzz on his tonsure. 

Athelstan cannot help but cry.

God was punishing him for his sins of the past. His thoughts of men, his kisses with Cenwolf… it was all crashing down upon him like rough waves on the shore.

God had taken him to Hell and is turning him into one of the savages.

But his God will have Athelstan's penance.


End file.
